The Cast of Netflix’s Shadow and Bone is Perfect
Filming wrapped on season one of Netflix’s adaption of Leigh Bardugo‘s Grisha Trilogy in February; which means we are possibly only months away from finally seeing the Darkling Alina, the Darkling Kaz, the Darkling Mal, the Darkling Jesper, and the Darkling Inej come to life on our screens.
Hold onto your amplifiers, it gets better.
The series will combine the events in Shadow and Bone with those happening in A Six of Crows. We’re talking magic, secrecy, war, love triangles, murder, and the build up to a heist that could replace the plot of Ocean’s Eleven without any of us noticing. It’s going to be everything.
There’s only one reasonable thing left to do while we impatiently wait for Netflix to announce the premiere date of Shadow and Bone: It’s time to deep dive on the cast member’s Instagram pages.
Jessie Mei Li as Alina Starkov
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If you’re going to cast Alina you need to pick an actor who can convincingly play both the most powerful Grisha who has ever lived, AND an underestimated orphan in Shadow and Bone. Quite frankly, they nailed it. Her instagram is a mix of muted colors, a close group of friends, and artsy selfies. In other words she’s way cooler than the rest of us, but still seems approachable. Just like Alina.
Archie Renaux as Malyen Oretsev
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Alina’s childhood BFF, Mal, is a character it takes a while to figure out. Is he Alina’s OTP or just a giant jerk who is threatened by her success? In the most complimentary way possible, Archie Renaux is giving me exactly those vibes.
Amita Suman as Inej Ghafa
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It only takes about 30 seconds perusing Amita’s page to know she’ll be the perfect Wraith. First of all, that face, second, the braid, third, did you see her on the aerial silks? She’s going to be spying from the height’s of Ketterdam and I’m going to believe she is an acrobat with everything in me.
Freddy Carter as Kaz Brekker
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Take one glimpse at Freddy Carter’s face and tell me you can’t see him as a suit wearing, tattooed, cane using, gang boss of The Dregs. I’ve never broken a serious law in my life but I’d follow him into Hellgate. I get it Inej, I really do.
Kit Young as Jesper Fahey
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Jesper is The Dreg’s sharpshooter who is never seen without his pearl-handled revolvers. I don’t know who was reading my diary, but Kit Young is the exact face I pictured when I read Six of Crows. If you peruse his page you’ll see a video of him handling his weapon and while that’s not usually my thing…maybe it is.
Ben Barnes as General Kirigan / The Darkling
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I am in no way prepared to sing the praises of Ben Barnes’s casting as General Kirigan/The Darkling. I don’t have the words. This may be the best casting of a book to screen character that I have ever seen. He’s gorgeous, timeless, brooding, scary as hell, but I’d definitely sneak into his little palace, if you know what I mean.
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If you’re looking for the profiles of the other characters we’ll see more of in future seasons (fingers crossed) I have you covered. Here’s Sujaya Dasgupta as Zoya Nazyalensky, Danielle Galligan as Nina Zenik, Simon Sears as Ivan, Calahan Skogman as Matthias Helvar, Julian Kostov as Fedyor Kaminsky, Luke Pasqualino as David Kostyk, and Jasmine Blackborow as Marie.
How is everyone on this cast so gorgeous? What do you think of the casting? Who are you most excited to see come alive on screen? When do you think the season will drop? Let’s talk in the comments.
